


Kara Danvers Must Die

by TheEffinMitchell



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: A little angst, F/F, SuperCorp, a little humor, a lot of fun, even if she doesn't always know how to, kara just wants to do what's right
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-01-26
Packaged: 2018-09-18 17:15:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9395309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEffinMitchell/pseuds/TheEffinMitchell
Summary: "I'm sorry... you want to what now?""I just... I just think that the world would be better off without me..."With Cadmus on the rise, and the threat to National City's alien population ever increasing, Supergirl makes the noble - if not reckless - decision to give up her human identity in order to save lives full time. It sounds good in theory, and with (almost) all her friends and family aware of her true self, disappearing is almost too easy. At least, that is, until Lena Luthor starts asking questions...or...The one where Kara just wants to do what she thinks is right, but goes about it in all the wrong ways, and Lena throws a shoe at Supergirl because her friend is either dead or missing and no one will give her a straight answer.





	1. The Talk

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a story idea/tumblr post that got a little out of hand. Chapters will be short, but hopefully quick.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I heard that quite clearly. You want to _what_ now?”

Alex Danvers loves her sister - really, she does. She’s devoted her entire life to the younger woman, giving up a burgeoning career in medicine and biology in order to join the DEO, and would happily give heaven and earth for Kara if only she could find a way to storm the pearly gates. She adores the blonde, endeared by all her little quirks and oddities, and though she occasionally entertains thoughts of what life might have been without her (mere ‘what ifs’, really), Alex wouldn’t change a single thing about it.

Except… except maybe this.

“What do you _mean_ you want to kill yourself?” she exclaims, as Kara reiterates her previous sentiment. Her heart clenches painfully beneath her chest, fear and guilt twisting in her gut as she desperately attempts to piece things together. While Kara was not the eternal ray of sunshine most often believed her to be, she had never once given off the impression that she was anything but content with her life; to suddenly be faced with the revelation that her sister is not nearly as happy as she seems is terrifying, and a part of her - a large, significant part - feels as though she’s somehow failed as an older sister.

“Well, I just…” Kara begins, stuttering nervously, “I just think that maybe the world would be better off without me, and-…”

“Jesus!” she exclaims, burying her face in her hands. “I don’t think they even _make_ Prozac strong enough for Kryptonians!”

“I-… Prozac? Wait, what?” Now it’s Kara’s turn to be confused, brows scrunched and nose crinkled. “Why would I ever need that?”

“Oh, I don’t know!” Alex shouts, throwing her hands up in exasperation. “Maybe because you’re obviously depressed enough to want to kill yourself? My god, Kara! Why didn’t you come to me sooner? I’m your sister, dammit. I’m here for you, no matter what. Good, bad, ugly - it doesn’t matter!”

“I… don’t understand,” Kara murmurs weakly, clearly befuddled by Alex’s verbal tirade.

“You don’t understand?” the brunette repeats, voice growing exponentially louder. " _YOU_ don’t understand? Kara, _I’M_ the one that doesn’t understand! How could you ever possibly think that the world would be better off without you.. that _I_ would be better off without you?“

Alex almost seems to crumple at the thought, curling in upon herself as she all but whispers, brokenly, "I thought it was supposed to be you and me… us against the world…”

Kara isn’t entirely certain what’s happened, but the sight of her sister on the verge of breakdown is more than enough to inspire her into action. “Alex, of course it’s you and me! It will always be you and me, together, until the end of time. That hasn’t changed, and it never will,” she assures, wrapping her arms around her slight frame.

“Then why do you want to kill yourself?” Alex demands, clutching tightly to the fabric of Kara’s sweater. “Why do want to _leave_ me…”

“I’m not leaving you, so please don’t be upset,” Kara implores, her own eyes watering. She’s _still_ not sure why they’re crying, but it’s basically a rule that if one Danvers sister cries, then so does the other.

“Kara… Kara, sweetie,” Alex breathes, voice trembling as she grips the blonde with all her strength. “We need to get you help. You need to see someone, to get whatever’s bothering you off your chest. S-suicide is not the answer, and if you can’t talk to me, then we can find someone else. The DEO has an entire department devoted to mental health and psychology, and maybe we can-…”

Kara’s brain comes to a screeching halt, and despite super powered hearing, she seems to lose all sense of auditory function at the word 'suicide’. Wait, was this what this whole thing was all about? “Alex, wait… just wait, okay? Now I think _I’m_ the one hearing things wrong,” she says, interjecting herself into the older woman’s monologue. “I mean, not to be rude or insensitive, but what in Rao’s light are you _talking about?_ I’m not committing suicide! Why would you ever _think_ that?”

“Because you said you want to kill yourself!” Alex roars, wrenching her way out of Kara’s now lax grip. Her eyes are red and puffy, swimming with tears yet to be shed as she desperately attempts to hold it all together.

“O-okay, yes, I said that,” Kara begins meekly, “and perhaps that wasn’t the best way to put it out there… but, like… umm… did, d-did you happen to listen anything I said _after_ that? Like, I dunno… the part where I said it would only be pretend, so that Kara Danvers would be out of the picture and I could focus full time on being Supergirl? With CADMUS on the loose, and the attacks on the alien population ever increasing, I just thought that maybe the world could use a hero more than it needs some new, fresh-off-the-boat reporter… and, um, yeah…”

She fidgets nervously with her glasses, flustered as she quietly finishes, “Because, y'know, that part is kind of important and-…”

“Oh god,” Alex grumbles, stalking furiously towards the kitchen as she wipes away the now unnecessary tears. “I need a drink.“


	2. What the World Needs

Kara lands amongst the chaos and confusion, cape billowing in the wind as the ground craters beneath the force of her arrival. She had been well beyond city limits when the call came in, following some ridiculous lead on an underground fashion ring (or something equally stupid) that Carr had sent her on, and had repeatedly shattered the sound barrier in her haste to return. She still isn’t sure what she’s up against as the DEO scrambles to gather more intel and Alex readies a strike team back at HQ, but judging by the crowd of fleeing citizens, it - whatever _it_ is - can’t be anything good.

A shrill cry catches her attention over the frightened screams, and with a burst of speed, Kara rushes down the block towards the epicenter of commotion. She gasps, a sharp intake of breath that catches in her throat as she meets her newest adversary; a man based on his build, tall and lanky with ashen skin, clad in dark uniform and armed with weapons only _one_ organization could provide.

“Cadmus,” she murmurs, hands clenching into a fist. She catches the man’s eye, and by some unspoken agreement, the two decide to skip formalities and jump straight into action. He’s _fast_ \- faster than she’d expected - and her brief underestimation of his ability does not go without its punishment. Before Kara knows what’s happening, she’s sent flying - and _not_ by her own power.

She lands painfully against a car, the steel and aluminum frame crumpling on impact as glass shatters to the street. He’s upon her in an instant, gloved fist crackling with some unknown power, and it’s only Alex’s plea over the comms for her to get up that she’s able to move in time. Rolling sideways, Kara barely avoids the strike, wincing as he plows through the space where her head had been mere moments ago.

Ducking a second fist, she sinks her own into his unprotected gut, throwing him back several yards. Despite holding back immensely, Kara is strong even at minimum strength, but he shakes off the blow as if it were nothing more than a minor nuisance.

“What did they _do_ to you?” she asks, more to herself than him as he busies himself with ripping out a stop sign and uses its pole as a makeshift spear. Side-stepping a jab, she blasts the metal with heat vision, melting it into a useless puddle of liquid steel. Taking advantage of his surprise, Kara decks him, this time putting a little extra power into it.

He falls back, taking a bit longer to recover, but remains undeterred; once more his hand glows, drawing energy into his palm that he unleashes in a devastating blast. Kara takes the brunt of it head on, groaning as the beam rips and tears, first at her suit and then her flesh; whatever new technology Cadmus had dug up, it was powerful - powerful enough to harm even her, and that scares her more than she’d like to admit.

Thanks to Earth’s yellow sun, Kryptonians (as few as they were) are amongst the most powerful aliens on the planet, and if these weapons could damage _her_ , Kara doesn’t want to imagine what they could do to less heartier species. With a shout that’s half-roar, her eyes glow hot and red as Supergirl unleashes a torrent of heat vision, matching his blast with one of her own. Her hands clench, muscles taut as she steadily marches forward, one foot in front of the other. Gradually, she inches closer; closer, and closer still - her power draining bit by bit - until she’s finally within reach, clamping her hand over the alien-powered glove and crushing it with the last of her strength.

She cancels out her heat vision immediately, sight blurring red as it returns to normal, and it’s in that brief moment of vulnerability - when her eyes have yet to clear, and she believes her adversary to be defeated - that things take a sharp turn for the worst.

Kara stiffens, lips pulled back in a grimace as she slowly lowers her head, staring wide-eyed and confused at the dagger lodged mid-way through her side. Although she’s blown most of her power, she’s learnt - after one too many times - to hold back _just enough_ to prevent total loss and to at least keep her body impermeable. The fact that it’s managed to pierce her otherwise impenetrable skin suggests that whatever metal used to forge its blade was definitely not of this earth, and that Cadmus was growing more powerful and more resourceful the longer time passed.

Alex screams her name, this time from behind as two SUV’s race onto the scene and half a dozen agents come piling out. Kara immediately snaps out of her thoughts, suddenly aware of the pain blossoming at her side. Her natural instinct is to remove the blade, but she has just enough sense to know that it’s likely the only thing preventing her from bleeding out; instead, she holds it steadily in place as she rears back before lurching forward, headbutting her assailant and very nearly knocking her own self out as he slumps to the ground.

“Supergirl!” Alex shouts, sliding to her knees just in time to catch the blonde as she too falls. “Supergirl!” she repeats, before more quietly whispering her sister’s name. “Kara…”

“Heeey,” the younger woman greets, with a delirious sort of grin. “Alex, what’re you d-doing here?”

“Shock,” she murmurs instead, pressing two fingers against her pulse point. Kara’s heartbeat is erratic, rapid and thready in the classic signs of blood loss. “You’re going into shock,” she says, signaling for one of the agents to help load her in the van. “We don’t have time to wait for an ambulance. We need to get you back to the DEO stat.”

“Okay,” is Kara’s only reply, eyes slowly drooping.

“No!” Alex snaps, smacking her cheek. “No! Do not fall asleep - do you understand me?”

“Mhmm,” Kara nods, absentmindedly. Her head lolls to the side as she’s laid out across the backseat, only to be shaken awake by Alex as she half-kneels, half-squats in the leg space between the rows.

“You know, when you said you wanted to kill yourself the other day, I thought you said it’d only be pretend,” Alex grumbles, feigning annoyance to mask her own growing anxiety.

“My bad,” her sister murmurs, sounding less than apologetic as she struggles to stay conscience. Alex wants to say more, wants to berate her for her recklessness and for her obvious lack of thinking; but she also wants Kara to save her breath, what little precious of it she may have left, and for the second time that week, she finds herself praying that this isn’t the last time they speak.

* * *

“Stop looking at me like that,” Kara whines, fidgeting restlessly beneath her sister’s stern gaze. The look Alex gives her is disappointed at best and scathing at worst, and she isn’t entirely sure which reaction she prefers less. 

“ _I’ll_ stop looking at you like this when _you_ stop putting yourself in dangerous situations that could have easily been avoided if you’d just taken the time to _stop_ and _think_ ,” Alex retorts fiercely, arms crossed over her chest in what Kara firmly believed to be as the battle stance of all elder siblings.

“A madman was rampaging across downtown National City! I didn’t have time to think!” she argues, wincing as she shifts too far and agitates her still-healing wound. Despite the addition of sunlamps, it’ll still take days - a week, even - for her to fully recover, and until then, she has nowhere to hide from her sister’s wrath. Still, it’s a better alternative to J’onn she supposes…

“You _literally_ have the ability to move faster than a speeding bullet, and you don’t have enough time to _think_ of a safer solution?” Alex cries, exasperated.

“It… it’s an abuse of power,” Kara refutes, which sounds lame even to her, but her side hurts and Alex is mad, and she just really, _really_ doesn’t want to be yelled at right now…

“An abuse of power?” the agent repeats, incredulously. “Kara, an abuse of power is you using your heat vision to warm up leftover pot stickers and freeze breath to make frozen margaritas! I hardly think using logic at super speed is the abuse of power here.”

Kara, to be expected, is positively scandalized by the accusation. “How _dare_ you bring pot stickers into this,” she seethes, lower lip jutting in a pout as she turns away. For several minutes, the room is deathly silent, filled with awkward tension as neither sister refuses to budge.

Eventually, Alex caves - as she always does - and throws her hands up in defeat. “You’re impossible!” she sighs, before making her way over to the bed and taking the seat beside it. Like magnets, their hands immediately find one another, and Alex relishes in the familiar warmth that was earlier so close to vanishing. “I was really scared there for a minute…” she finally admits, averting her gaze.

Kara gives her a reassuring squeeze. “I wasn’t,” she says, a small grin toying at her lips. “I knew you’d save me. You always do.”

As always, Kara’s unwavering belief in her ability leaves Alex in awe, and she can only ruefully reply, “Yeah, well, _someone’s_ gotta do it. You’re so busy saving the world, sometimes you forget to save yourself.”

“Speaking of saving the world…” she begins, tentatively, much to her sister’s chagrin. All it takes is one look, and Alex knows _exactly_ where this conversation is headed. “Cadmus is only growing stronger, and they’ll keep churning out Frankenstein’s monsters until one is eventually able to defeat either me and/or Kal. They have the resources, the manpower, and enough crazies willing to be turned into some science fair creation gone wrong to do this for a long, long time.”

“I need to be prepared,” she goes on, the waver in her voice quickly giving way to steely determination. “I just… I can’t do it anymore! I can’t sit at my desk, day after day, trying to play normal when there is a credible threat against myself and others like me. I have to train, have to get stronger; I need to sharpen my skills, and master my powers. I have to be ready for whatever Cadmus throws at us next, and I can’t do that as some bumbling, awkward newbie reporter…

“The world doesn’t _need_ me… not as I am in ordinary life, anyway,” she eventually concludes, staring down as Alex’s grip tightens around her hand. “The world needs Supergirl more than it will ever need Kara Danvers, and that’s who I want to be - who I was always _meant_ to be.”

Kara can practically see the cogs working in her sister’s head as she thinks it through. They’d had this conversation several times now since her initial proposal, but after today especially, she thinks Alex finally gets it. Several minutes come and go as the brunette mulls over the idea, eventually releasing a sigh that can only mean she’s conceded.

“The world may need Supergirl, but _I_  will always need Kara Danvers,” she says, staring into her sister’s eyes. “Don’t ever forget that.”

It’s as close to a blessing as Kara knows she’ll get, and she throws her arms around the other woman, ignoring the sharp sting of pain in her side. “Thank you,” she murmurs, burying her face against the crook of Alex’s neck.

“Yeah, yeah…” Alex mumbles, returning the hug with equal fervor. “But just so you know,  _you_ get to tell J’onn.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I swear this story is SuperCorp, despite it somehow reading as a mildly angsty Danvers sister fic. Honestly, this chapter was just supposed to be a simple "Kara fights Cadmus agent, gets a little hurt, and is able to use this to convince Alex she's right". But my fingers slipped, and oops! Well, here you go...
> 
> Thanks for all the wonderful comments last chapter, and I hope to you'll let me know how you liked this one too! :)

**Author's Note:**

> http://the-effin-mitchell.tumblr.com/post/156051116732/i-dont-have-enough-energy-or-motivation-to  
> If you'd like to see the original post/get a better idea of what's to come. 
> 
> Reviews are always appreciated!


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